Gold Rush (2018) s05e03 Episode Script
Golden Boy
1 .
Gold mining is not for the faint of heart.
It's basically a minefield of broken dreams.
The Hoffman crew is down to three.
This is our last chance and it's gotta work.
The beaten men fight a desperate battle.
Come on! Turn it off! .
.
to get their ancient equipment up and running.
It bleeds down! I fully understand that.
They work harder than ever before I'll keep her going.
.
.
to beat the odds for their first payday Here it comes.
That's a lot of gold.
.
.
and the chance of redemption.
That's our best first clean-up ever.
Tony Beets has fallen way behind.
Whatever it takes, the thing's gotta come out of there.
In a frantic attempt to get his massive 75-year-old dredge mining gold this season .
.
Tony tears into it.
But his reckless abandon .
.
sets him back even further.
You see all that twist steel there, Tony? Parker Schnabel's 2,000oz gold looks less and less likely.
We're far behind.
This is the leanest ground you've ever seen.
To change his fortune We have to get the gold out of the ground.
.
.
the young mine boss makes the unpopular decision to run his crew day and night I honestly don't know how we do it right now.
Either walk out of here or run 24-7.
.
.
but faces problem We had a hole in the belt.
.
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after problem This just isn't working.
.
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as he struggles to turn his season around.
That's a good bowl.
That's a pretty damn good pan.
Todd, Jack and Thurber are all that remain of the Hoffman crew.
Hey! Get out of the way! They're working alone in the Yukon trying to resurrect their gold mining careers.
We're struggling.
Last season was just a horrible train wreck that We got a couple of pieces of equipment and they were new a long time ago.
All they were able to salvage from their disastrous season in the jungle was their wash plant, Little Red.
This is our last chance and it's got to work or it's over.
We're done.
To get more gold than the pathetic 2oz they mined last season, the three of them somehow need to get Little Red up and running.
Why don't you let me just tell you what to do? I know what I gotta do.
We're lacking in youth and ability.
I don't think we're the best team in the world but we ARE a team.
One miner, one bald guy and one fat guy.
You know we're behind and I don't know if it's possible but look at that.
It's all pay dirt out there.
We did not have to strip this dirt.
So we can actually run this through and there's a lot of it out here.
Let's just get some gold.
Us three.
OK.
We'll do it.
Thurb, we need to load that sluice box up on the 400.
Away we go.
Watch that tow line.
Nice and easy, Jack.
Take it easy.
Slow.
Easy, easy, EASY! 400 running pretty rough, huh? Yeah.
Well, just try to make it up here.
See if we can get the box set.
Get your sluice boxes level so you're actually catching your gold.
You know, it's hard to do all this with pretty shady equipment.
Right up to it.
Link chain, chain, Thurb.
I want to see where we're sitting right here.
We're trying to achieve two inches per foot of fall.
Three inches.
We've got to come up on this end.
We're gonna hook you up.
We're gonna bring the front up.
OK.
Whoa! What you doing? Your own thing or? Come on, Dad.
Stop! We're bringing this side of the box up.
OK? You don't have to tell me.
I can see it.
It's 1½ inches wide.
No-one's told you to move it now you're moving it again.
And it bleeds down I get it! I fully understand that.
When I move that I do.
I fully understand that.
You gotta go down.
I know what it's gotta do.
It just ain't doing it.
It just bleeds and bleeds and bleeds.
It makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time here.
Ah, crap.
She just died.
OK.
Thurber, jump up there and pump some more fuel into that baby.
All right.
The fuel pump is going out.
Hydraulic pump has given up.
This thing's done.
It's way past its prime so I have to, kind of, baby this thing along.
But if it breaks down, we are toast.
Cos we don't have the money to fix it.
OK.
Give her a shot.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER) We're back in business.
Turn the bucket a little bit.
Thurber do not get under that.
OK? I should have got my life insurance.
Up.
Go up, please.
Up! Thurber, good job.
Dad, good job.
We got it in.
Don't breathe on it.
It's perfect.
We got a perfect fall now.
Let's go work on the water supply, guys.
Just 180m away Let's roll it out, Thurb.
.
.
there's already a large holding pond to supply the wash plant.
This'll be the final step and then we throw the key to see if everything is running.
I have no idea yet.
Bring it in, Dad.
All they need now is to drop in the water filter.
This is awesome.
It floats out there and keeps the basket off the bottom where it pulls silt into our pump.
You don't want to pull a bunch of junk into your pump and ruin it.
Easy! OK.
(CLANK AS FLOAT HITS BOTTOM) That thing's supposed to be floating.
We're about two feet short of water here.
The legs are on the bottom.
That basket's barely underwater.
If that float isn't floating, you don't have enough water.
I need at least, I'm guessing, 1½ft 2ft in here.
You can't sluice with dirty water.
You know, we're screwed.
16km to the east at Scribner Creek, 19-year-old mine boss, Parker Schnabel, is gunning for 2,000oz.
Or $2.
4 million in gold this season.
His goal - to buy his independence.
I can't deal with Tony any more.
By the end of the season, I'll be able to buy my own ground and be my own man like my dad was.
But with just 80oz of gold, worth less than $100,000 after four weeks of mining, Parker is way off what he needs to hit his goal.
Let me know how many buckets you get in an hour.
I'll crank it up if I have to.
Honestly, if we're gonna hit 2,000oz we need to start making up ground.
We need to step up production.
We don't want to start our season behind.
If Parker is going to hit 100oz every week, he needs to make a radical change.
I think this is, like, the leanest ground you ever seen but this is the only ground we've got so if we can't find better ground, we've got to run more ground.
Hey, Gene! How are things going? Doing days right now on this leaner ground isn't gonna get us anywhere.
So I'm thinking about trying to change things up.
And start a night shift.
Start sluicing 24-7 and start pumping this stuff through it.
You know, I don't really agree with running 24-7.
You know how short the season is, Gene.
I don't know how we're gonna keep pay the plant.
We gotta get more people.
I can do nights, hauling pay.
I honestly don't know how we do it right now.
Either walk out of here and there's nowhere else to walk to, or go 24-7, there's no other way.
We don't have the people and we're just not ready yet.
We're good for one shift a day but not two.
The guys may not like it but we have to get the gold out of the ground.
Every week that we don't do at least 100oz, is a week we fall behind.
At 7pm, Parker starts the new regime.
Oh-oh-oh.
New guy.
Chris this is David.
Dave, how you doing? Hey, Chris.
He's gonna be a runner nights.
Starting tonight.
All right.
So, if you could show him the ropes on the plant.
Have you done any operating on plants like this? Yeah.
A couple.
Let me walk you through all the emergency shutdown buttons.
Then we'll turn you loose.
You've run a loader before? Yeah, that's no problem.
This is important.
Make sure you don't run out of pay dirt.
We're gonna start washing up.
That happens.
There's an emergency shut-off.
Bang.
Kills it all.
You're familiar with those, right? Good luck on it, man.
Thanks.
Have fun.
Don't break it.
Yeah.
You have a good night.
Catch you in the morning.
Sounds good.
I'll see you.
We're a little under.
Watching the new guy on the plant.
We've finally got it dialled in.
I don't know if it's a wise decision.
The new guy and I are gonna try to run the plant tonight.
Good luck.
Is that truck ready to go? Yeah.
Thanks, man.
I'm gonna have to hot seat here.
Load these trucks.
Get the pay to the plant and hope I can keep up.
Parker loads in the excavator then jumps in the rock truck to drive pay dirt over to the new guy, David.
By 1:30am, the two-man night crew has already run over 400 yards of pay dirt.
I'm not living the dream.
I'm cold.
I'm tired.
I'm too sober to still be awake at 1:30am.
Parker has worked 17 hours straight and he's starting to lose it.
Hey, Parker.
Can you hurry up with the pay dirt? The piles are getting small.
I'll try to pick it up.
I've got to be doing eight loads an hour.
And the way this fall is, I'm doing about six an hour so that really is starting putting me behind.
You're gonna have to pick up the pace, Parker.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm trying, man.
We're gonna be running out here in a couple of minutes, I think.
David scrapes up the last of the dirt Parker has stockpiled.
Parker, the pay dirt has gone.
This just isn't working.
I can't keep up.
We'll just shut it down.
All right.
There's nothing else to do.
I can't keep up with the plant.
It's a long haul.
One guy.
And it's just not going to do it.
At 3am, after an eight-hour night shift, Parker calls it.
He just can't haul enough pay dirt to keep the plant fed.
The ground's lean and the only solution is to run more of it.
And it seems like even that, right now, is not an option so I don't know what to do but we're in trouble.
.
.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets is taking his 75-year-old dredge apart to move it 240km to his new claim.
But he's already fallen a week behind schedule.
No ifs or buts, it's gonna run.
That's what it's gonna do.
Built in 1939, in its best season this floating gold factory caught £5 million in gold.
Tony is dead set on resurrecting it this season.
He's finally got his new crane on site to remove the 5 ton gantry - the massive structure used to support the bucket line.
So this is how it's gonna go.
We're gonna let this gantry down today.
Take the bolts out.
Let the whole thing down in one.
If we can take it out in one piece, fine.
If it bends, it's a lot of work.
You think it's gonna bend, right? Where it's attached.
This gantry is a pretty important piece.
We have no (BLEEP) second one.
So what do you think we should do? Take it apart and then we'll let it down in two pieces.
Then we don't take a chance on bending it up there.
Take it that part out separately.
Right.
If you want to get up there, we'll see what we can do.
The gantry is a pivoting steel structure that supports the gold-catching bucket line.
The gantry is held in place by a brace.
By removing the bolts that connect them, Tony can lower the gantry without the 3-ton brace straining the 75-year-old steelwork.
But he can't risk any mistakes.
There's nowhere to get spare parts for the dredge.
I hope you're not scared of (BLEEP) heights, Jerry.
Heights? Yeah.
You just don't look down.
Oh, is that how it works? What does it all look like? It looks like we can get all the bolts out.
It looks pretty simple? Stand here with an impact wrench and take them all out.
Damn! I saw it fall through.
The 75-year-old deck is rotten.
Tony, the lumber is (BLEEP) up.
I can hardly stand on it.
And Tony doesn't have time to make the platform safe enough to remove the bolts and disconnect the brace.
I think that'd be the best.
The brace'll come down with the gantry.
Lift the cable up, Jerry.
I can't hear what he's saying.
I can't understand.
(DISTORTED VOICE OVER RADIO) Extend it all, Jerry, please.
He's got to extend a little bit.
There is one operator not two! OK? I got him on the radio.
He can't hear you.
I need another one.
You can't have two people.
Can you hear this radio, Jerry? No? OK.
Then I need a different radio.
I hear you but couldn't understand you.
He must be calling back.
Can you hear this one, Jerry? I can hear you.
Good.
No, because it's got to be one.
I know.
That's right.
Get something happening here in a minute.
That's about all the patience I have for this You got it? Tony needs someone to climb the steelwork and hook up the crane.
He volunteers his son, Kevin.
Make sure you hook on to something and make (BLEEP) sure that you don't stand on them boards.
Take all the time you need.
Just go and get out there and put that sling on.
I'll send one of my own kids up.
If he leaps to his death he won't sue.
I mean, he's 26 years old.
He ought to be able to finger it out.
Carrying on? I've got to go up on top of it.
Feels very windy.
Get it going, get off.
I like that plan.
Just another day in paradise.
The gantry and the brace have not been moved for more than 30 years.
If they get damaged, it could be next season before Tony can construct a replacement.
This is the final bolt so this'll get really exciting.
And everyone should stand back.
Are you ready? Go.
Go the right way.
That helps.
Got that? Can I have a look at that myself, please? Louis has already put pressure on it.
It should slide out.
That's the thing.
I'm into hard knocks.
I never went to school.
OK, Jerry.
We are ready.
Lower it down.
OK.
Down she goes.
Now is the fun bit.
Keep her going.
Keep her going.
Down, down, down, down.
I think I see a problem here.
(STEEL FRAME WHINES) It's twisting.
Hey, Tony! I want it down.
We'll watch.
What's happening is the gantry is a bit twisted.
See that twist there, Tony? We may have a problem.
100km south at McKinnon Creek the Hoffman's holding pond is low on water.
Todd's hunting down the water source used by the miners that went bust here last season.
The last guys that were here must have been getting their water all the way from down there.
There's their suction.
Look at this pump.
They pulled the water and sent it all the way up to the plant.
You know, that's a long way to push that.
That is good water.
To fill their holding pond, they'll have to pump the water almost a kilometre up the pipeline.
But the only pump they have is over 50 years old.
How do you start that thing? Heck, I don't know.
I've seen one of those levers in an old World War II movie.
Where they dropped the bombs out of the bomber.
You're gonna sit and throw that in.
It engages your clutch.
Dad, why don't you go down to the end and tell me how much water is coming out of that thing? Let me just fire it up and give her a shot OK? (ENGINE TURNS BUT DOES NOT IGNITE) We're up at the start.
You can fire it up.
OK.
I'm trying.
We got fuel.
Here she goes.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER, KNOCKS AND REVS INTO LIFE) Come on! Come on! We gotta get this primed up.
Get the pump pumping water.
Here it comes.
Here she comes.
The pipe is fine.
We're pushing water.
All I'm hearing right now is some sounds but that's about it.
I'm at about 500rpm.
I think I might throttle it up a little bit.
Bring it up to 700rpm.
Yeah, I'm at about 700rpm.
Do you see anything coming up there? Not seeing anything yet.
Dad, I can see something shooting off the sides.
.
.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is down to Todd, Jack and Thurber.
Before they can fire up the wash plant and start mining, they have to pump water almost a kilometre up into their holding pond.
Dad, I can see something shooting out of the side! Please, turn it off.
Turn it off, Todd.
Kill it.
We got a torn gasket or no gasket here.
(SAFETY HAT THUDS ON ROCK) Oh! This is frustrating.
It's just frustrating.
We can't run down to the hardware store and pick something up.
We have to improvise.
You know, we're in the bush.
We don't have the exact part.
But you'll find something that you think'll work and you give it a go.
Here's some hose.
I can cut this into strips and wrap it tight.
Clamp 'em together.
Maybe it'll work.
I think I have a fit.
Hey, Todd.
Go ahead and fire it up.
OK.
We'll give it a shot here.
Don't see anything yet.
Have you started it coming? Would you shut up for one second? God! What did he say? (ENGINE FIRES UP) Looks like she's pumping water.
I can hear it.
OK.
Here she comes.
We've got about half a pipeful.
Well, that's pretty good.
All right.
Thurb, you did a good job.
I wouldn't say we're out of the woods yet but we're one step closer.
Here we go.
Over a Scribner Creek, Parker's nightshift plan has failed.
He's out of stockpiled pay dirt and can't run the wash plant.
Parker's had just four hours sleep in two days but he's up early and back at it.
So we're about to change things up a little bit right now.
He shifts his entire crew on to hauling pay dirt.
We don't have enough pay stockpiled to run the plant all night so we're gonna haul all this pay outta here and stockpile it and hopefully, our night shift tonight will be sluicing.
It's a short season and every hour we're not sluicing is an hour we don't get back.
We've just got to go for it.
If we need to plan around 24-7, we'll do what it takes to make that happen.
Parker has lost five hours of sluicing.
It's 1pm before they fire up the wash plant.
We're back up and running again.
It's about time too.
Now maybe we can get some gold.
Parker wants to rush the wash plant 24 hours a day which means we gotta get a lot more dirt off to the plant.
The pressure's going on.
We're already working pretty damn hard.
We're just gonna have to bust ass and get it for him.
Well, with running 24 hours a day, we'll go through a lot of pay dirt.
And I tell you, he has a pile of pay dirt here I've never seen before.
It's huge.
I've been running this plant for three years.
It's kind of my own baby here and I feel a little uncomfortable with the new baby-sitter.
Right now, the plant is just about at maximum capacity.
I'm afraid that Parker is gonna want to speed it up all the way.
I don't like that idea.
The harder you push a machine, the more it's likely to break.
There's so many things can go wrong.
You can tear a belt.
You can get it jammed up in the pre-wash box.
When disaster strikes, it strikes hard and fast.
It could be a real mess.
Chris loads the last bucket of pay dirt before the end of his shift.
Coming in tomorrow morning what I don't want to see is a broken wash plant.
So, it looks like we've got a good stockpile here.
This should run the double shift.
You know, I think we can crank out 24-7 as soon as we're ready.
Cos we've definitely got the pay.
With 1,000 yards of pay dirt stockpiled, Parker and David start the night shift again.
There is definitely a pressure.
Somebody's got to do the job, I guess.
It's always hard to see everything is working properly.
We need this to work.
The only way we're gonna find we need is just running the yard and if we drop down what we're doing per hour, and it's just, you know, the end of the line.
Parker, we got a problem.
We got a problem.
She's jammed right up.
What happened? Well, we got a hole in the belt on the tailings conveyor.
We got a lot of fine rock building up in there which can jam it up.
And that'll stop the belts on the tailing conveyor.
If Parker doesn't stop the conveyor, the damaged belt will rip in half.
putting Big Red out of action for days.
I don't really wanna (BLEEP) that belt up so I guess we have no choice but to shut it down.
I dunno what we're gonna do about it.
I know it's not happening.
We gotta have this thing going 24-7.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets and his team are removing a critical piece of his gold-catching dredge - the 5-ton steel gantry.
Well, today's plan.
We'll do whatever it takes.
(BLEEP) has got to come out of there.
They've lowered the gantry to the ground and bent the steel in the process.
Now, they have to disconnect the gantry from the dredge by removing the pins that it hinges on.
Right behind you.
On the bale behind you.
Kevin, get in the hole.
Nail that thing.
Nail it.
Let's hit that (BLEEP)! It's not moving, is it? That's pretty sold.
When Tony lowered the gantry in one piece, he twisted the structure.
Now, he's paying the price.
I think as that beam twisted like that it's probably putting a pretty good bind on that other pin so that other pin's not gonna out very easy.
If you get things lined up perfectly, you could slide it in with your fingers.
We could get a torch.
Spring those others off.
The twisted gantry is locked in place by three remaining pins.
The plan is to remove the bolts that hold the two outer beams to the dredge.
This should release the twist on the gantry and allow them to remove the final trapped pin.
Whatever it takes to get the damn thing off.
Well, with him cutting them bolts off it ought to free this side up and it'll free that pin up so he can get it out of there.
There it is down and hopefully, everything will pop out.
Keep her up.
Oh, hold on a second.
The dredge was left to rot here after its last shift 27 years ago.
Tony's convinced he can restore it and catch thousands of ounces of gold like the old-timers.
At McKinnon Creek, Todd and Jack Hoffman started their season with no claim, no machines and no men.
And that one.
OK.
Now, if they can just get clean water to their wash plant, they can once again call themselves gold miners.
For the last 24 hours, they've been pumping water into their holding pond.
They're finally ready to fire up Little Red for the first time.
Fire up the generator.
Working.
Is it working again? Go water! Listen, Dad, I want you to put the first bucket in.
I'll keep her going.
All this work and all this planning has come down to this.
It's hard to believe this thing is actually running.
OK.
Here it comes.
It's looking good.
Big rocks going that way.
A material with the gold is going through the sluice.
Absolutely perfect.
I'm excited.
I think it's fantastic.
It's gonna be a good season.
Over the next day and a half, the skeleton crew push their 36-year-old loader and trusted 400 excavator harder than ever before running 2,000 yards of pay dirt.
This isn't ideal but I'm getting pay dirt.
(CLANKING) Thurber, I need your help.
What's going on? Look at that.
Dad, what's up? It just quit.
Can you just get it to dump dirt? Son, I know when engines go and this one went.
This puppy isn't gonna go any more.
It's seized up.
We don't have an excavator to load that plant.
Thurber, cut the water.
.
.
At Scribner Creek, Parker finishes the clean-up for the week.
We tried to get the night shift to work and it wouldn't.
So I'm not sure what's gonna be in it but this can't be under 100oz or it's not paying the bills.
Tony Beets, Parker's claim owner, arrives for the weigh-in.
How do you think you're going? Well, kind of rough, really.
We're trying to get a night shifts going so I've been throwing in.
They'll get used to it, I guess.
Anyway, let's weigh it up so I can go home.
You have 23.
To hit his goal of 2,000oz, worth $2.
4 million, Parker needs at least 100oz every week.
Are you gonna make 100 or what? 90.
83.
90 ounces is worth just over £100,000.
This is two weeks now that we're under.
I don't know even if we're covering fuel.
Parker weighs out Tony's cut - 13½ ounces of gold worth $16,000.
All right.
Thanks, Tony.
For weeks into the season, Parker still has managed a single 100oz clean-up.
I mean, all we ever talk about is how short the season is.
If you fall behind, it's so hard to catch up.
The problem is, that's true.
Back at McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman's only excavator is dead.
They've just got started and suddenly have no way to mine.
One of the worst days of my life right now.
There's only one glimmer of hope in this whole situation.
That is that I got gold in the box.
Todd's only chance of repairing or replacing the 400 excavator is to get a pile of gold out of their first clean-up.
Well, I don't think we ran the yards to be that big of a clean-up.
Maybe five or 10 ounces.
Max.
That wouldn't even buy a bucket for an excavator up here.
So You know, this could take the the sap right out of you.
We'll see.
Back at camp, the three Hoffman miners are doing what could be their last ever weigh-in.
Every little bit counts.
I don't even know how we made it this far with the equipment that we had so What do you think about that? Quite a bit in there.
I don't know.
About five or 10 maybe.
Well, I know there's at least five.
The last time you're going mining, huh, Blue? There's everything riding on it.
If this ends tomorrow, I'm back in the same boat I was five years ago.
Looking for work.
Trying to make ends meet.
That's it.
All right.
Let's dry it out, Dad.
It's not our biggest, it's not our smallest.
But it could be our most important clean-up we've ever done.
For sure.
Dad, let's measure it up.
All right.
Three.
There's four.
That sound never gets old.
Gold falling into a jar.
101112 18 1920.
Now we're talking.
All right.
Twenty We've still got some.
.
.
seven.
Yes! 28.
Yeah! 31.
32.
34.
Wow.
34 ounces.
Worth over $40,000.
That's our best first clean-up ever.
That's it.
Heeyyyyy! They may have a broken down excavator but their first Klondike clean-up is 17 times more than they got in Guyana all of last season.
34 ounces.
Guys, we did it.
With Little Red.
That's a lot of gold.
We just might have enough gold to get an excavator, guys.
I need a ride into town.
I think I need to tell my wife I'm staying.
For the amount of dirt we ran, this ground is frickin' awesome.
Yeah.
To us all, huh? We're still in the game.
We're not going home.
This land has got something special and I want to find out what.
Me, my dad and Thurber are frickin' back.
Right there.
On the next Gold Rush - Tony Beets makes a drastic move I need that plane up in the air.
And you know what I need? I need money.
.
.
taking to the skies as he struggles to recover lost time at his dredge.
Parker Schnabel needs to get back on track Let's do it.
.
.
and makes an impulsive decision that splits his crew.
If it isn't fast enough, you can get somebody else to do it.
And a defeated Todd Hoffman What the?! That is Shut everything down.
.
.
sucks up his pride We need more equipment.
.
.
and calls the one man that can save his season.
Dave.
Todd.
I need you.
Gold mining is not for the faint of heart.
It's basically a minefield of broken dreams.
The Hoffman crew is down to three.
This is our last chance and it's gotta work.
The beaten men fight a desperate battle.
Come on! Turn it off! .
.
to get their ancient equipment up and running.
It bleeds down! I fully understand that.
They work harder than ever before I'll keep her going.
.
.
to beat the odds for their first payday Here it comes.
That's a lot of gold.
.
.
and the chance of redemption.
That's our best first clean-up ever.
Tony Beets has fallen way behind.
Whatever it takes, the thing's gotta come out of there.
In a frantic attempt to get his massive 75-year-old dredge mining gold this season .
.
Tony tears into it.
But his reckless abandon .
.
sets him back even further.
You see all that twist steel there, Tony? Parker Schnabel's 2,000oz gold looks less and less likely.
We're far behind.
This is the leanest ground you've ever seen.
To change his fortune We have to get the gold out of the ground.
.
.
the young mine boss makes the unpopular decision to run his crew day and night I honestly don't know how we do it right now.
Either walk out of here or run 24-7.
.
.
but faces problem We had a hole in the belt.
.
.
after problem This just isn't working.
.
.
as he struggles to turn his season around.
That's a good bowl.
That's a pretty damn good pan.
Todd, Jack and Thurber are all that remain of the Hoffman crew.
Hey! Get out of the way! They're working alone in the Yukon trying to resurrect their gold mining careers.
We're struggling.
Last season was just a horrible train wreck that We got a couple of pieces of equipment and they were new a long time ago.
All they were able to salvage from their disastrous season in the jungle was their wash plant, Little Red.
This is our last chance and it's got to work or it's over.
We're done.
To get more gold than the pathetic 2oz they mined last season, the three of them somehow need to get Little Red up and running.
Why don't you let me just tell you what to do? I know what I gotta do.
We're lacking in youth and ability.
I don't think we're the best team in the world but we ARE a team.
One miner, one bald guy and one fat guy.
You know we're behind and I don't know if it's possible but look at that.
It's all pay dirt out there.
We did not have to strip this dirt.
So we can actually run this through and there's a lot of it out here.
Let's just get some gold.
Us three.
OK.
We'll do it.
Thurb, we need to load that sluice box up on the 400.
Away we go.
Watch that tow line.
Nice and easy, Jack.
Take it easy.
Slow.
Easy, easy, EASY! 400 running pretty rough, huh? Yeah.
Well, just try to make it up here.
See if we can get the box set.
Get your sluice boxes level so you're actually catching your gold.
You know, it's hard to do all this with pretty shady equipment.
Right up to it.
Link chain, chain, Thurb.
I want to see where we're sitting right here.
We're trying to achieve two inches per foot of fall.
Three inches.
We've got to come up on this end.
We're gonna hook you up.
We're gonna bring the front up.
OK.
Whoa! What you doing? Your own thing or? Come on, Dad.
Stop! We're bringing this side of the box up.
OK? You don't have to tell me.
I can see it.
It's 1½ inches wide.
No-one's told you to move it now you're moving it again.
And it bleeds down I get it! I fully understand that.
When I move that I do.
I fully understand that.
You gotta go down.
I know what it's gotta do.
It just ain't doing it.
It just bleeds and bleeds and bleeds.
It makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time here.
Ah, crap.
She just died.
OK.
Thurber, jump up there and pump some more fuel into that baby.
All right.
The fuel pump is going out.
Hydraulic pump has given up.
This thing's done.
It's way past its prime so I have to, kind of, baby this thing along.
But if it breaks down, we are toast.
Cos we don't have the money to fix it.
OK.
Give her a shot.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER) We're back in business.
Turn the bucket a little bit.
Thurber do not get under that.
OK? I should have got my life insurance.
Up.
Go up, please.
Up! Thurber, good job.
Dad, good job.
We got it in.
Don't breathe on it.
It's perfect.
We got a perfect fall now.
Let's go work on the water supply, guys.
Just 180m away Let's roll it out, Thurb.
.
.
there's already a large holding pond to supply the wash plant.
This'll be the final step and then we throw the key to see if everything is running.
I have no idea yet.
Bring it in, Dad.
All they need now is to drop in the water filter.
This is awesome.
It floats out there and keeps the basket off the bottom where it pulls silt into our pump.
You don't want to pull a bunch of junk into your pump and ruin it.
Easy! OK.
(CLANK AS FLOAT HITS BOTTOM) That thing's supposed to be floating.
We're about two feet short of water here.
The legs are on the bottom.
That basket's barely underwater.
If that float isn't floating, you don't have enough water.
I need at least, I'm guessing, 1½ft 2ft in here.
You can't sluice with dirty water.
You know, we're screwed.
16km to the east at Scribner Creek, 19-year-old mine boss, Parker Schnabel, is gunning for 2,000oz.
Or $2.
4 million in gold this season.
His goal - to buy his independence.
I can't deal with Tony any more.
By the end of the season, I'll be able to buy my own ground and be my own man like my dad was.
But with just 80oz of gold, worth less than $100,000 after four weeks of mining, Parker is way off what he needs to hit his goal.
Let me know how many buckets you get in an hour.
I'll crank it up if I have to.
Honestly, if we're gonna hit 2,000oz we need to start making up ground.
We need to step up production.
We don't want to start our season behind.
If Parker is going to hit 100oz every week, he needs to make a radical change.
I think this is, like, the leanest ground you ever seen but this is the only ground we've got so if we can't find better ground, we've got to run more ground.
Hey, Gene! How are things going? Doing days right now on this leaner ground isn't gonna get us anywhere.
So I'm thinking about trying to change things up.
And start a night shift.
Start sluicing 24-7 and start pumping this stuff through it.
You know, I don't really agree with running 24-7.
You know how short the season is, Gene.
I don't know how we're gonna keep pay the plant.
We gotta get more people.
I can do nights, hauling pay.
I honestly don't know how we do it right now.
Either walk out of here and there's nowhere else to walk to, or go 24-7, there's no other way.
We don't have the people and we're just not ready yet.
We're good for one shift a day but not two.
The guys may not like it but we have to get the gold out of the ground.
Every week that we don't do at least 100oz, is a week we fall behind.
At 7pm, Parker starts the new regime.
Oh-oh-oh.
New guy.
Chris this is David.
Dave, how you doing? Hey, Chris.
He's gonna be a runner nights.
Starting tonight.
All right.
So, if you could show him the ropes on the plant.
Have you done any operating on plants like this? Yeah.
A couple.
Let me walk you through all the emergency shutdown buttons.
Then we'll turn you loose.
You've run a loader before? Yeah, that's no problem.
This is important.
Make sure you don't run out of pay dirt.
We're gonna start washing up.
That happens.
There's an emergency shut-off.
Bang.
Kills it all.
You're familiar with those, right? Good luck on it, man.
Thanks.
Have fun.
Don't break it.
Yeah.
You have a good night.
Catch you in the morning.
Sounds good.
I'll see you.
We're a little under.
Watching the new guy on the plant.
We've finally got it dialled in.
I don't know if it's a wise decision.
The new guy and I are gonna try to run the plant tonight.
Good luck.
Is that truck ready to go? Yeah.
Thanks, man.
I'm gonna have to hot seat here.
Load these trucks.
Get the pay to the plant and hope I can keep up.
Parker loads in the excavator then jumps in the rock truck to drive pay dirt over to the new guy, David.
By 1:30am, the two-man night crew has already run over 400 yards of pay dirt.
I'm not living the dream.
I'm cold.
I'm tired.
I'm too sober to still be awake at 1:30am.
Parker has worked 17 hours straight and he's starting to lose it.
Hey, Parker.
Can you hurry up with the pay dirt? The piles are getting small.
I'll try to pick it up.
I've got to be doing eight loads an hour.
And the way this fall is, I'm doing about six an hour so that really is starting putting me behind.
You're gonna have to pick up the pace, Parker.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm trying, man.
We're gonna be running out here in a couple of minutes, I think.
David scrapes up the last of the dirt Parker has stockpiled.
Parker, the pay dirt has gone.
This just isn't working.
I can't keep up.
We'll just shut it down.
All right.
There's nothing else to do.
I can't keep up with the plant.
It's a long haul.
One guy.
And it's just not going to do it.
At 3am, after an eight-hour night shift, Parker calls it.
He just can't haul enough pay dirt to keep the plant fed.
The ground's lean and the only solution is to run more of it.
And it seems like even that, right now, is not an option so I don't know what to do but we're in trouble.
.
.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets is taking his 75-year-old dredge apart to move it 240km to his new claim.
But he's already fallen a week behind schedule.
No ifs or buts, it's gonna run.
That's what it's gonna do.
Built in 1939, in its best season this floating gold factory caught £5 million in gold.
Tony is dead set on resurrecting it this season.
He's finally got his new crane on site to remove the 5 ton gantry - the massive structure used to support the bucket line.
So this is how it's gonna go.
We're gonna let this gantry down today.
Take the bolts out.
Let the whole thing down in one.
If we can take it out in one piece, fine.
If it bends, it's a lot of work.
You think it's gonna bend, right? Where it's attached.
This gantry is a pretty important piece.
We have no (BLEEP) second one.
So what do you think we should do? Take it apart and then we'll let it down in two pieces.
Then we don't take a chance on bending it up there.
Take it that part out separately.
Right.
If you want to get up there, we'll see what we can do.
The gantry is a pivoting steel structure that supports the gold-catching bucket line.
The gantry is held in place by a brace.
By removing the bolts that connect them, Tony can lower the gantry without the 3-ton brace straining the 75-year-old steelwork.
But he can't risk any mistakes.
There's nowhere to get spare parts for the dredge.
I hope you're not scared of (BLEEP) heights, Jerry.
Heights? Yeah.
You just don't look down.
Oh, is that how it works? What does it all look like? It looks like we can get all the bolts out.
It looks pretty simple? Stand here with an impact wrench and take them all out.
Damn! I saw it fall through.
The 75-year-old deck is rotten.
Tony, the lumber is (BLEEP) up.
I can hardly stand on it.
And Tony doesn't have time to make the platform safe enough to remove the bolts and disconnect the brace.
I think that'd be the best.
The brace'll come down with the gantry.
Lift the cable up, Jerry.
I can't hear what he's saying.
I can't understand.
(DISTORTED VOICE OVER RADIO) Extend it all, Jerry, please.
He's got to extend a little bit.
There is one operator not two! OK? I got him on the radio.
He can't hear you.
I need another one.
You can't have two people.
Can you hear this radio, Jerry? No? OK.
Then I need a different radio.
I hear you but couldn't understand you.
He must be calling back.
Can you hear this one, Jerry? I can hear you.
Good.
No, because it's got to be one.
I know.
That's right.
Get something happening here in a minute.
That's about all the patience I have for this You got it? Tony needs someone to climb the steelwork and hook up the crane.
He volunteers his son, Kevin.
Make sure you hook on to something and make (BLEEP) sure that you don't stand on them boards.
Take all the time you need.
Just go and get out there and put that sling on.
I'll send one of my own kids up.
If he leaps to his death he won't sue.
I mean, he's 26 years old.
He ought to be able to finger it out.
Carrying on? I've got to go up on top of it.
Feels very windy.
Get it going, get off.
I like that plan.
Just another day in paradise.
The gantry and the brace have not been moved for more than 30 years.
If they get damaged, it could be next season before Tony can construct a replacement.
This is the final bolt so this'll get really exciting.
And everyone should stand back.
Are you ready? Go.
Go the right way.
That helps.
Got that? Can I have a look at that myself, please? Louis has already put pressure on it.
It should slide out.
That's the thing.
I'm into hard knocks.
I never went to school.
OK, Jerry.
We are ready.
Lower it down.
OK.
Down she goes.
Now is the fun bit.
Keep her going.
Keep her going.
Down, down, down, down.
I think I see a problem here.
(STEEL FRAME WHINES) It's twisting.
Hey, Tony! I want it down.
We'll watch.
What's happening is the gantry is a bit twisted.
See that twist there, Tony? We may have a problem.
100km south at McKinnon Creek the Hoffman's holding pond is low on water.
Todd's hunting down the water source used by the miners that went bust here last season.
The last guys that were here must have been getting their water all the way from down there.
There's their suction.
Look at this pump.
They pulled the water and sent it all the way up to the plant.
You know, that's a long way to push that.
That is good water.
To fill their holding pond, they'll have to pump the water almost a kilometre up the pipeline.
But the only pump they have is over 50 years old.
How do you start that thing? Heck, I don't know.
I've seen one of those levers in an old World War II movie.
Where they dropped the bombs out of the bomber.
You're gonna sit and throw that in.
It engages your clutch.
Dad, why don't you go down to the end and tell me how much water is coming out of that thing? Let me just fire it up and give her a shot OK? (ENGINE TURNS BUT DOES NOT IGNITE) We're up at the start.
You can fire it up.
OK.
I'm trying.
We got fuel.
Here she goes.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER, KNOCKS AND REVS INTO LIFE) Come on! Come on! We gotta get this primed up.
Get the pump pumping water.
Here it comes.
Here she comes.
The pipe is fine.
We're pushing water.
All I'm hearing right now is some sounds but that's about it.
I'm at about 500rpm.
I think I might throttle it up a little bit.
Bring it up to 700rpm.
Yeah, I'm at about 700rpm.
Do you see anything coming up there? Not seeing anything yet.
Dad, I can see something shooting off the sides.
.
.
At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew is down to Todd, Jack and Thurber.
Before they can fire up the wash plant and start mining, they have to pump water almost a kilometre up into their holding pond.
Dad, I can see something shooting out of the side! Please, turn it off.
Turn it off, Todd.
Kill it.
We got a torn gasket or no gasket here.
(SAFETY HAT THUDS ON ROCK) Oh! This is frustrating.
It's just frustrating.
We can't run down to the hardware store and pick something up.
We have to improvise.
You know, we're in the bush.
We don't have the exact part.
But you'll find something that you think'll work and you give it a go.
Here's some hose.
I can cut this into strips and wrap it tight.
Clamp 'em together.
Maybe it'll work.
I think I have a fit.
Hey, Todd.
Go ahead and fire it up.
OK.
We'll give it a shot here.
Don't see anything yet.
Have you started it coming? Would you shut up for one second? God! What did he say? (ENGINE FIRES UP) Looks like she's pumping water.
I can hear it.
OK.
Here she comes.
We've got about half a pipeful.
Well, that's pretty good.
All right.
Thurb, you did a good job.
I wouldn't say we're out of the woods yet but we're one step closer.
Here we go.
Over a Scribner Creek, Parker's nightshift plan has failed.
He's out of stockpiled pay dirt and can't run the wash plant.
Parker's had just four hours sleep in two days but he's up early and back at it.
So we're about to change things up a little bit right now.
He shifts his entire crew on to hauling pay dirt.
We don't have enough pay stockpiled to run the plant all night so we're gonna haul all this pay outta here and stockpile it and hopefully, our night shift tonight will be sluicing.
It's a short season and every hour we're not sluicing is an hour we don't get back.
We've just got to go for it.
If we need to plan around 24-7, we'll do what it takes to make that happen.
Parker has lost five hours of sluicing.
It's 1pm before they fire up the wash plant.
We're back up and running again.
It's about time too.
Now maybe we can get some gold.
Parker wants to rush the wash plant 24 hours a day which means we gotta get a lot more dirt off to the plant.
The pressure's going on.
We're already working pretty damn hard.
We're just gonna have to bust ass and get it for him.
Well, with running 24 hours a day, we'll go through a lot of pay dirt.
And I tell you, he has a pile of pay dirt here I've never seen before.
It's huge.
I've been running this plant for three years.
It's kind of my own baby here and I feel a little uncomfortable with the new baby-sitter.
Right now, the plant is just about at maximum capacity.
I'm afraid that Parker is gonna want to speed it up all the way.
I don't like that idea.
The harder you push a machine, the more it's likely to break.
There's so many things can go wrong.
You can tear a belt.
You can get it jammed up in the pre-wash box.
When disaster strikes, it strikes hard and fast.
It could be a real mess.
Chris loads the last bucket of pay dirt before the end of his shift.
Coming in tomorrow morning what I don't want to see is a broken wash plant.
So, it looks like we've got a good stockpile here.
This should run the double shift.
You know, I think we can crank out 24-7 as soon as we're ready.
Cos we've definitely got the pay.
With 1,000 yards of pay dirt stockpiled, Parker and David start the night shift again.
There is definitely a pressure.
Somebody's got to do the job, I guess.
It's always hard to see everything is working properly.
We need this to work.
The only way we're gonna find we need is just running the yard and if we drop down what we're doing per hour, and it's just, you know, the end of the line.
Parker, we got a problem.
We got a problem.
She's jammed right up.
What happened? Well, we got a hole in the belt on the tailings conveyor.
We got a lot of fine rock building up in there which can jam it up.
And that'll stop the belts on the tailing conveyor.
If Parker doesn't stop the conveyor, the damaged belt will rip in half.
putting Big Red out of action for days.
I don't really wanna (BLEEP) that belt up so I guess we have no choice but to shut it down.
I dunno what we're gonna do about it.
I know it's not happening.
We gotta have this thing going 24-7.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets and his team are removing a critical piece of his gold-catching dredge - the 5-ton steel gantry.
Well, today's plan.
We'll do whatever it takes.
(BLEEP) has got to come out of there.
They've lowered the gantry to the ground and bent the steel in the process.
Now, they have to disconnect the gantry from the dredge by removing the pins that it hinges on.
Right behind you.
On the bale behind you.
Kevin, get in the hole.
Nail that thing.
Nail it.
Let's hit that (BLEEP)! It's not moving, is it? That's pretty sold.
When Tony lowered the gantry in one piece, he twisted the structure.
Now, he's paying the price.
I think as that beam twisted like that it's probably putting a pretty good bind on that other pin so that other pin's not gonna out very easy.
If you get things lined up perfectly, you could slide it in with your fingers.
We could get a torch.
Spring those others off.
The twisted gantry is locked in place by three remaining pins.
The plan is to remove the bolts that hold the two outer beams to the dredge.
This should release the twist on the gantry and allow them to remove the final trapped pin.
Whatever it takes to get the damn thing off.
Well, with him cutting them bolts off it ought to free this side up and it'll free that pin up so he can get it out of there.
There it is down and hopefully, everything will pop out.
Keep her up.
Oh, hold on a second.
The dredge was left to rot here after its last shift 27 years ago.
Tony's convinced he can restore it and catch thousands of ounces of gold like the old-timers.
At McKinnon Creek, Todd and Jack Hoffman started their season with no claim, no machines and no men.
And that one.
OK.
Now, if they can just get clean water to their wash plant, they can once again call themselves gold miners.
For the last 24 hours, they've been pumping water into their holding pond.
They're finally ready to fire up Little Red for the first time.
Fire up the generator.
Working.
Is it working again? Go water! Listen, Dad, I want you to put the first bucket in.
I'll keep her going.
All this work and all this planning has come down to this.
It's hard to believe this thing is actually running.
OK.
Here it comes.
It's looking good.
Big rocks going that way.
A material with the gold is going through the sluice.
Absolutely perfect.
I'm excited.
I think it's fantastic.
It's gonna be a good season.
Over the next day and a half, the skeleton crew push their 36-year-old loader and trusted 400 excavator harder than ever before running 2,000 yards of pay dirt.
This isn't ideal but I'm getting pay dirt.
(CLANKING) Thurber, I need your help.
What's going on? Look at that.
Dad, what's up? It just quit.
Can you just get it to dump dirt? Son, I know when engines go and this one went.
This puppy isn't gonna go any more.
It's seized up.
We don't have an excavator to load that plant.
Thurber, cut the water.
.
.
At Scribner Creek, Parker finishes the clean-up for the week.
We tried to get the night shift to work and it wouldn't.
So I'm not sure what's gonna be in it but this can't be under 100oz or it's not paying the bills.
Tony Beets, Parker's claim owner, arrives for the weigh-in.
How do you think you're going? Well, kind of rough, really.
We're trying to get a night shifts going so I've been throwing in.
They'll get used to it, I guess.
Anyway, let's weigh it up so I can go home.
You have 23.
To hit his goal of 2,000oz, worth $2.
4 million, Parker needs at least 100oz every week.
Are you gonna make 100 or what? 90.
83.
90 ounces is worth just over £100,000.
This is two weeks now that we're under.
I don't know even if we're covering fuel.
Parker weighs out Tony's cut - 13½ ounces of gold worth $16,000.
All right.
Thanks, Tony.
For weeks into the season, Parker still has managed a single 100oz clean-up.
I mean, all we ever talk about is how short the season is.
If you fall behind, it's so hard to catch up.
The problem is, that's true.
Back at McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman's only excavator is dead.
They've just got started and suddenly have no way to mine.
One of the worst days of my life right now.
There's only one glimmer of hope in this whole situation.
That is that I got gold in the box.
Todd's only chance of repairing or replacing the 400 excavator is to get a pile of gold out of their first clean-up.
Well, I don't think we ran the yards to be that big of a clean-up.
Maybe five or 10 ounces.
Max.
That wouldn't even buy a bucket for an excavator up here.
So You know, this could take the the sap right out of you.
We'll see.
Back at camp, the three Hoffman miners are doing what could be their last ever weigh-in.
Every little bit counts.
I don't even know how we made it this far with the equipment that we had so What do you think about that? Quite a bit in there.
I don't know.
About five or 10 maybe.
Well, I know there's at least five.
The last time you're going mining, huh, Blue? There's everything riding on it.
If this ends tomorrow, I'm back in the same boat I was five years ago.
Looking for work.
Trying to make ends meet.
That's it.
All right.
Let's dry it out, Dad.
It's not our biggest, it's not our smallest.
But it could be our most important clean-up we've ever done.
For sure.
Dad, let's measure it up.
All right.
Three.
There's four.
That sound never gets old.
Gold falling into a jar.
101112 18 1920.
Now we're talking.
All right.
Twenty We've still got some.
.
.
seven.
Yes! 28.
Yeah! 31.
32.
34.
Wow.
34 ounces.
Worth over $40,000.
That's our best first clean-up ever.
That's it.
Heeyyyyy! They may have a broken down excavator but their first Klondike clean-up is 17 times more than they got in Guyana all of last season.
34 ounces.
Guys, we did it.
With Little Red.
That's a lot of gold.
We just might have enough gold to get an excavator, guys.
I need a ride into town.
I think I need to tell my wife I'm staying.
For the amount of dirt we ran, this ground is frickin' awesome.
Yeah.
To us all, huh? We're still in the game.
We're not going home.
This land has got something special and I want to find out what.
Me, my dad and Thurber are frickin' back.
Right there.
On the next Gold Rush - Tony Beets makes a drastic move I need that plane up in the air.
And you know what I need? I need money.
.
.
taking to the skies as he struggles to recover lost time at his dredge.
Parker Schnabel needs to get back on track Let's do it.
.
.
and makes an impulsive decision that splits his crew.
If it isn't fast enough, you can get somebody else to do it.
And a defeated Todd Hoffman What the?! That is Shut everything down.
.
.
sucks up his pride We need more equipment.
.
.
and calls the one man that can save his season.
Dave.
Todd.
I need you.